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Jack, one thing I'd like to know is what was with Violet? Why was she so ugly to the Beav. and if memory serves, she kinda tried to play the teacher's pet.
Did she have a crush on Beaver or was she just mean to everyone and why?

I don't recall Beaver having too many problems with Violet. The one big exception was when the Cleavers and Rutherfords go on a picnic and Fred wants Violet to kiss Beaver for a picture...UGHHH, which Fred has published! UGGHHH! And as a side-note, where is Lumpy in this episode? He's not even mentioned! He could have had some great one-liners had he been there to witness this experience! LOL!

I am thinking more of Beaver's problems with Teacher's Pet and "thinks she knows it all" Judy Hensler. Jeri Weil played her to perfection! It wasn't just dislike between Beaver and Judy. Judy as the class narc was hated by everybody. In some ways, she was almost a classroom equivalent of Eddie Haskell. Playing up to teachers in school, like Eddie would, and trying to be the social climber with the answer to everything. (i.e "My mother was the head-buyer for Ready to Wear. " Beaver, this is Cindy, and Cindy's mother's taking us to a rich restaurant for lunch." Or writing down names of kids who misbehaved.)

The good teachers and perceptive kids could see Judy's and Eddie's problematic personality issues once they got to know them.

In "Beaver's Football Award" who is the person in the picture identified as Mule Saunders in the newspaper? I cannot find any Mule Sanders associations for football in Internet searches, but saw some for other sports.

Jack

Call me crazy, but I just saw the episode this morning and I think it was Ronald Reagan. That's what brought me onto the Interwebs looking for the information.

Certainly it COULD have been Reagan. After all, he played George Gipp ("The Gipper") in "Knute Rockne All American" in 1940 (when he was beyond college-age, at 29). He also played baseball Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander in "The Winning Team" (1952). So he was an athletic type who had sports-film credits, and at the age of 51 when the episode "Beaver's Football Award" appeared, he was of the right vintage to play a retired professional football player.

Call me crazy, but I just saw the episode this morning and I think it was Ronald Reagan. That's what brought me onto the Interwebs looking for the information.

Certainly it COULD have been Reagan. After all, he played George Gipp ("The Gipper") in "Knute Rockne All American" in 1940 (when he was beyond college-age, at 29). He also played baseball Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander in "The Winning Team" (1952). So he was an athletic type who had sports-film credits, and at the age of 51 when the episode "Beaver's Football Award" appeared, he was of the right vintage to play a retired professional football player.

9.) It's been rumored that Tony Dow got his license around the time that "Wally's License" was filmed and the producers had Tony drive his own car for those scenes. Does anyone know the make and model of that car?

10.) Did Jerry have any trouble climbing into the soup bowl in the classic, "In The Soup" Episode? Jerry said that this episode was the most expensive they ever did, because they had to pay a huge fee to get permission to use the billboard sponsor. It was so expensive, that for the next several episodes, they could not afford to pay ANY guest star actors!

Jack

Just guessing here on 8.) but many of their "trip to the woods" or "trip to the lake" episodes were filmed on location at Franklin Canyon Reservoir in California, where so many movies and TV shows have been filmed over the years. "The Real McCoys," "Combat!" and "That Girl" are some of the other shows where I specifically picked it out of the footage. Most famously, "The Andy Griffith Show" was often filmed there and it's where you see Opie throwing the rock in the iconic opening credits.

9.) If it's the same car, Wally's car was a 1953 Chevrolet 210, and was actually used in one of the "Tammy" movies in beautiful color before it was on "Beaver." (Its real color was mint green.) That lessens the chances it actually belonged to Tony Dow.

10.) I thought Zesto Soups was a fictional brand, and I would guess the real expense was building the billboard in the first place and making sure all safety gear was in place for shooting. I don't question that was very likely an expensive episode to shoot and well worth it, it's one of the show's funniest episodes.

Call me crazy, but I just saw the episode this morning and I think it was Ronald Reagan. That's what brought me onto the Interwebs looking for the information.

Certainly it COULD have been Reagan. After all, he played George Gipp ("The Gipper") in "Knute Rockne All American" in 1940 (when he was beyond college-age, at 29). He also played baseball Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander in "The Winning Team" (1952). So he was an athletic type who had sports-film credits, and at the age of 51 when the episode "Beaver's Football Award" appeared, he was of the right vintage to play a retired professional football player.

Well, there's also Shaker Heights (I live next door to this city) where Ward talks about where he grew up..And yup, it USED to be farmland before rich people moved in and took over...

And Mayfield Hts., Mayfield Rd. and the city of Mayfield are only about 20 min. away as well...."Friends Lake" coulda been any of the lakefront state park areas here in Cleveland off Lake Erie...And I thought I heard Ward even mention Cleveland once or twice too...

I thought Zesto Soups was a fictional brand, and I would guess the real expense was building the billboard in the first place and making sure all safety gear was in place for shooting. I don't question that was very likely an expensive episode to shoot and well worth it, it's one of the show's funniest episodes.

I, too, think Zesto Soups was fictional. Interestingly, with the woman pictured, the billboard has a 1930's or 1940's look to it. The steam rising from the bowl might remind some of the right age of the old Camel cigarette billboards where it appeared a man pictured was blowing smoke.

I also have to think that a stand-in was used for Jerry Mathers in some of the parts when "Beaver" is shown climbing up to the bowl and also descending the ladder with the fireman. Some of those were shot showing him from the back or with his cap pulled down over his face.

Well, there's also Shaker Heights (I live next door to this city) where Ward talks about where he grew up..And yup, it USED to be farmland before rich people moved in and took over...

And Mayfield Hts., Mayfield Rd. and the city of Mayfield are only about 20 min. away as well...."Friends Lake" coulda been any of the lakefront state park areas here in Cleveland off Lake Erie...And I thought I heard Ward even mention Cleveland once or twice too...

Yeah, they could have based it on that, but don't forget, Ward says the nearest ocean is 20 miles away, and Aunt Martha says, the Cleaver home "is such an eastern-looking home so far west. Or Actually "It's nice to see such an eastern-looking home so far west."

Well, there's also Shaker Heights (I live next door to this city) where Ward talks about where he grew up..And yup, it USED to be farmland before rich people moved in and took over...

And Mayfield Hts., Mayfield Rd. and the city of Mayfield are only about 20 min. away as well...."Friends Lake" coulda been any of the lakefront state park areas here in Cleveland off Lake Erie...And I thought I heard Ward even mention Cleveland once or twice too...

I think I read somewhere that for "Friend's Lake." the Universal Lot had a lake in the back of the property, or just off the property where outdoor scenes involving water were filmed. I remember that Tony said once he and Jerry used to fish at that lake in between scenes and one time, Jerry caught a lot more fish than Tony did!

I, too, think Zesto Soups was fictional. Interestingly, with the woman pictured, the billboard has a 1930's or 1940's look to it. The steam rising from the bowl might remind some of the right age of the old Camel cigarette billboards where it appeared a man pictured was blowing smoke.

I also have to think that a stand-in was used for Jerry Mathers in some of the parts when "Beaver" is shown climbing up to the bowl and also descending the ladder with the fireman. Some of those were shot showing him from the back or with his cap pulled down over his face.

Speaking of stand in's, I think I told this story about the "Horse Named Nick" episode which Hugh wrote. In between shots, Jerry and Tony would go out back to the apple trees on the lot and feed the horse apples, and one time they gave "Nick" a few too many apples and the horse kept farting! And the kids and crew are laughing and Barbara is looking real stern, offended by the smell. Barbara really WAS June in personality and mannerisms in real life.

Anyway, the hardest scene they had to do was getting Nick to lie down. They did tons of takes and finally Hugh suggested to the director, "Let's bring a vet over to tranquilize him." They did just that. But Nick still wouldn't lie down! He walked around in a drunken stooper into the living room and trashed part of the set!

It got to be past 5PM and Child Labor Laws in California said that kids could not work past that time, so Jerry and Tony had to go home and finally Nick lied down. I think he actually fell asleep! LOL! But there are stand in's for Jerry and Tony in the scene where the horse in lying down. Jerry said that one of his stand-in's played in a play production in "Wizard of Oz" as one of the munchkins! Look at the stand in for Jerry when Nick is lying down! He's wearing little Munchkin shoes! hahaha!

I, too, think Zesto Soups was fictional. Interestingly, with the woman pictured, the billboard has a 1930's or 1940's look to it. The steam rising from the bowl might remind some of the right age of the old Camel cigarette billboards where it appeared a man pictured was blowing smoke.

I also have to think that a stand-in was used for Jerry Mathers in some of the parts when "Beaver" is shown climbing up to the bowl and also descending the ladder with the fireman. Some of those were shot showing him from the back or with his cap pulled down over his face.

It's possible the back shots could have been a stand in. But Jerry said in an interview he remembers actually being up in the bowl because he recalls it was so hot because of the steam, (or whatever they used to generate the steam-I think he said how this was done, can't remember.) I am sure they had tons of safety precautions though.

They COULD have had something to create an illusion of the billboard being high up, when it probably was not, just to make sure Jerry would not slip in those shots. I wonder if they did the same thing in the scenes where Beaver had to climb a tree:

1.) The episode where Beaver and Wally take care of the cat.
2.) The episode where Beaver and Linda Dennison look at the bird eggs.

What's the other episode with Beaver in a tree? I should know this! Is it "Beaver Runs Away?"

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